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How old is the child? My best advice would be that if he or she is ready, training should happen smoothly and easily. If it doesn't, the kid isn't ready; stop and try again in a few months. Oh, and maybe I'm a bad parent, too, but I used M&M's, and once my daughter was actually ready, it only took ten days and half a bag of pull-ups. I think a lot of people push really early potty training as a sort of status symbol of good parenting.

Don't push it, your child is in Freud's "Anal Stage" of development, and pushing potty training at this age can cause life long issues...know how we call people who are frigid "anal", its because in theory something traumatic happened to them at this stage. So, do not push it, it will just click when they are ready. Do not punish for accidents, just reassure them that it was an accident and to go to the potty next time.